Heretofore, it has been common practice to transport newly manufactured vehicles, including automobiles, vans, and trucks, made in this country or imported into this country on auto rack equipped railroad cars. The transportation of newly manufactured vehicles by railroad is usually over long distances above three hundred miles. For example, domestic vehicles manufactured in the mid-west are transported to the west coast, or in another example, imported vehicles manufactured abroad which arrive on the west coast are transported to midwestern cities. A train having auto rack equipped railroad cars, known in the industry as auto rack cars, can take several days to reach its destination while traveling over thousands of miles through varying terrain. These trains also travel throughout the year enduring the severest of winter and summer weather as well as other environmental and man-made conditions. The period of travel, terrain, weather, environmental and man-made conditions are important because of the typical construction of the auto rack cars in which the newly manufactured vehicles are transported.
The typical auto rack car is compartmented, having two or three floors, two side walls, doors in front and back, and a roof. The side walls are constructed of numerous sidewall panels made of galvanized steel which are attached between vertical posts that are spaced evenly throughout the length of the auto rack car. However, these sidewall panels are installed with: significant gaps between the vertically adjacent sidewall panels, gaps between the vertical posts and the sidewall panels, gaps between the roof and the sidewall panels, and gaps between the floor and the sidewall panels. These gaps permit the entry of rapidly moving air into the auto rack car and thus onto the newly manufactured vehicles being stored in transit. This rapidly moving air entering the auto rack car carries contaminants, such as iron oxide, smoke or exhaust from the railroad engine, metal filings or shavings from the railroad tracks, dirt or sand carrying chemicals such as fertilizer, acid rain, and other precipitation-containing contaminants, all of which can damage the finishes of the newly manufactured vehicles. This damage can be so extensive that the manufacturer has to repaint or refinish the vehicles. Attempts to close these gaps with tape have not been successful.
Another closely related and significant problem is the damaging of a newly manufactured vehicle door's finish in the auto rack cars. Newly manufactured vehicles are loaded into the auto rack car by a person who drives the vehicle into the auto rack car. After correctly positioning the vehicle, the person must open the vehicle door to exit the vehicle. When the vehicle door is opened, it often comes in contact with the sidewall panels and/or the roof because there is only a limited amount of space between the vehicle and the side walls on any level or the vehicle and roof on the upper level of the auto rack car. This metal-to-metal contact can and often does scratch, dent, and/or damage the finish of the newly manufactured vehicle's doors.
One method which has been used to solve the door damage problem is the application of mastic-backed tape over the sidewall panel as a guard for the vehicle doors. This method has been unsuccessful for several reasons. First, the surfaces of the sidewall panel which contact the adhesive side of the tape must be specially cleaned before the tape is applied. Otherwise, the tape will not properly adhere to the panels. Second, the extreme changes in temperature and the constant abuse from the sun and other elements of nature cause the tape to deteriorate and peel away. Third, the tape can be used only one time. Fourth, and finally, because the sidewall panels are taken off the auto rack car approximately every eight years to be regalvanized, the tape and any adhesive left on the panels must be completely removed. The tape and adhesive must be scraped off and/or removed by a special solvent. This removal process is difficult, costly, and time-consuming. Therefore, the application of tape to protect the vehicle doors does not solve the problem.
Another method which has been used to prevent the vehicle doors from contacting the sidewall panels is to horizontally stretch a nylon belt across the sidewall panels and attach the ends of the belts to each end of the auto rack cars, approximately eighty feet apart. However, this method has been unsuccessful even with the addition of guides which are glued or welded to the vertical posts. The stretching of nylon belts between the two ends of the auto rack cars causes the belt to lose tension. This loss in tension causes the nylon belt to sag. When the nylon belt sags, it does not prevent the vehicle door from contacting the sidewall panels. To solve this problem, the nylon belt has to be constantly retensioned by ratchet tightening at one end of the auto rack car. Eventually, the nylon belts become completely stretched out and must be replaced. Accordingly, this method does not solve the problem.
A further method which has been used to prevent the vehicle doors from contacting the sidewall panels is to horizontally strap a rubber hose across the length of the auto rack car. However, this method has been unsuccessful because the rubber hose sags, because the straps holding the rubber hose often break, and because the hose does not sufficiently cover the sidewall panels. Thus, this method also fails to solve the problem.
Other methods such as attaching large rubber mats to the sidewall panels and coating the sidewall panels with a thin layer of spray-on foam have similarly failed to provide adequate protection for the newly manufactured vehicle doors.